"Kate Crackernuts" (or "Katie Crackernuts") is a Scottish

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

collected by

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

in the

Orkney Islands Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland ...

and published in ''

Longman's Magazine ''Longman's Magazine'' was first published in November 1882 by C. J. Longman, publisher of Longmans, Green & Co. of London. It superseded ''Fraser's Magazine'' (published 1830 to 1882). A total of 276 monthly issues had been published when the ...

'' in 1889.

Joseph Jacobs Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian-born folklorist, literary critic and historian who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. Born in Sydney to a Jewish family, his work went on to popula ...

edited and republished the tale in his '' English Fairy Tales'' (1890). The tale is about a princess who rescues her beautiful sister from an evil enchantment and a prince from a wasting sickness caused by dancing nightly with the fairies. The tale has been adapted to a children's novel and a stage play.

Plot

A king had a daughter named Anne, and his queen had a daughter named Kate, who was less beautiful. (Jacobs' notes reveal that in the original story both girls were called Kate and that he had changed one's name to Anne.) The

queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

was jealous of Anne, but Kate loved her. The queen consulted with a henwife to ruin Anne's beauty, and after

three 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

tries, they enchanted Anne's head into a sheep's head. Kate wrapped Anne's head in a cloth, and they went out to seek their fortunes. They found a castle of a king who had two sons, one of whom was sickening. Whoever watched him at night mysteriously vanished (the original never mentions anyone else watching over him), so the king offered silver to anyone who would watch him. Kate asked for shelter for herself and her "sick" sister, and offered to watch him. At midnight, the sick prince rose and rode off. Kate sneaked onto his horse and collected nuts as they rode through the woods. A green hill where the

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

were dancing opened to receive the prince, and Kate rode in with him unnoticed. The prince danced with the fairies until the morning before rushing back. Kate offered to watch the prince a second night for gold. The second night passed as the first but Kate found a fairy baby in the hill. It played with a wand, and she heard fairies say that three strokes of the wand would cure Anne. So she rolled nuts to distract the baby and got the wand, then cured her sister. The

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

night, Kate said she would stay only if she could marry the prince, and that night, the baby played with a bird, three bites of which would cure the sick prince. She distracted the baby with the nuts again to get it. As soon as they returned to the castle, she cooked it, and the prince was cured by eating it. Meanwhile, his brother had seen Anne and fell in love with her, so they all married — the sick brother to the well sister, and the well brother to the sick sister.

Commentary

Maria Tatar Maria Magdalene Tatar (born May 13, 1945) is an American academic whose expertise lies in children's literature, German literature, and folklore. She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Chair of the Committee o ...

, author of ''The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales'', notes that "Kate Crackernuts" belongs to the "do or die" strain of fairy tales: a heroine is given a task to perform, and, if successful, she wins a prince, but, if unsuccessful, she loses her life. The tale touches upon the wicked stepmother theme but never fully develops it, and the green hill may be related to the Venusberg of ''

Tannhäuser Tannhäuser (; ), often stylized "The Tannhäuser", was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and 1265. His name ...

'', or another site of pleasure. Unlike many popular tales, which are known from reworked literary forms, "Crackernuts" is very close to the oral tradition. It combines Aarne–Thompson types 306, the danced-out shoes, such as "

The Twelve Dancing Princesses "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" (also "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" or "The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces"; ) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' in 1815 (KHM 133). It is of Aarne-Tho ...

", and 711, the beautiful and the ugly twin, such as " Tatterhood". The fairies' forcing young men and women to come to a revel every day and dance to exhaustion, and so waste away, was a common European belief. The actual disease involved appears to have been consumption (

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

). This tale is the closest analogue to ''

'', but reverses the role, in that the heroine goes after the dancing prince, and also the tone: the princesses in ''The Twelve Dancing Princesses'' are always depicted as enjoying the dances, while in the much darker ''Kate Crackernuts'', the prince is forced by the fairies to dance to exhaustion, and is an invalid by day. Though the stepmother acts the usual part in a fairy tale, her part is unusually truncated, without the usual comeuppance served to evil-doers and the stepsisters show a solidarity that is uncommon even among full siblings in fairy tales. The tale of Kate Crackernuts made its way into Anglo-American folklore.Hamilton, Mary. ''Kentucky Folktales: Revealing Stories, Truths, and Outright Lies''. University Press of Kentucky. 2012. pp. 133-151.

Adaptations

Literature

Katharine Mary Briggs Katharine Mary Briggs (8 November 1898 – 15 October 1980) was a British folklorist and writer, who wrote ''The Anatomy of Puck'', the four-volume ''A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language'', and various other books on fairie ...

adapted the story for her children's novel, ''Kate Crackernuts''. *

Sheila Callaghan Sheila Callaghan (born 1973) is a playwright and screenwriter who emerged from the RAT ( Regional Alternative Theatre) movement of the 1990s. She has been profiled by ''American Theater Magazine'', "The Brooklyn Rail", ''Theatermania'', and ''Th ...

adapted the story for her play, ''Kate Crackernuts''. * Amy Trent adapted the story in her new adult novel, ''Clever, Cursed, & Storied.''

Music

Juan María Solare Juan María Solare (born August 11, 1966) is an Argentina, Argentine composer and pianist. Education Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Solare studied and received his diploma in piano (María Teresa Criscuolo), Musical composition, composition (F ...

composed a piece called ''Kate Crackernuts (the Dancing Fairy)'', original for solo piano but with several additional instrumental versions (such as clarinet and cello duo). In its version for

music box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces Musical note, musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder (geometry), cylinder or disc to pluck ...

, this piece is included in the album Music Box Music (2016), label Janus Music & Sound
Kate Crackernuts (the Dancing Fairy) on Spotify

References

Bibliography

* Hamilton, Mary. ''Kentucky Folktales: Revealing Stories, Truths, and Outright Lies''. University Press of Kentucky. 2012. pp. 139–151. {{ISBN, 978-0-8131-3600-4 Fictional princesses Scottish fairy tales Scottish folklore Culture of Orkney Fairy tales about shapeshifting Female characters in fairy tales Fairy tales about fairies Fairy tales about magic Fairy tales about princes Fairy tales about princesses ATU 300-399 ATU 700-749